12/01/2025
A Confirming Word on Old King Herod
I just want to echo what Rick said in his fine sermon yesterday (Nov. 23). Herod was a ruthless tyrant and skilled politician. When the Magi don’t report back to him, he decides to kill all the male children of Bethlehem under the age of 2. That’s one paranoid dude. And yet, and yet the consequences of a king like Herod are just the kind of things that we are secretly attracted to. We like the security, we like the building projects, we like the fact that the trains run on time (or would it be that the chariots run on time?!?).
Jesus offers us so much more, but in doing so Jesus may very well take away some of our security, building a Kingdom within and not without, and the way of the cross is terribly inefficient if we want what we want and want it now.
I just thought You might appreciate a further word on Herod from our good friends on Wikipedia.
Herod the Great (c. 72 – c. 4 BCE) was a Roman Jewish client king of the Herodian kingdom of Judea. He is known for his colossal building projects. Among these works are the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the expansion of its base—the Western Wall being part of it. Many of the crucial details of his life are recorded in the works of the 1st century CE Roman–Jewish historian Josephus.
Despite Herod's successes, including forging a new aristocracy, he has been criticized by various historians. His reign polarizes historians’ opinions, some viewing his legacy as evidence of success, and some viewing it as evidence of tyranny.
Herod the Great is described in the Christian Bible as the coordinator of the Massacre of the Innocents. Most of the New Testament references are to his son Herod Antipas (such as the events leading to the executions of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth in Matthew 14), or his grandson Herod Agrippa (in Acts 12). Upon Herod's death in 4 BCE, the Romans divided his kingdom among three of his sons and his sister: his son Herod Antipas received the tetrarchy of Galilee and Peraea.
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